non reference saphire 4870

Denscafon · Post by **Denscafon** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:32 pm

Hey, been reading this forum for awhile, but first time actually posting. sorry if there's a thread that already asked this.

I'm planning on making a new setup during boxing day sales and am planning on getting a 4870 (most likely 1gb version). Most of the stuff I'm buying has emphasis on being as silent as possible, without tons of modding and tons of cash.

I was originally going to put a Accelero S1 rev2 on a referene 4870 to make it fanless but from reading other threads here, it seems like there could be some problems with the VRM sinks not fitting properly.

I came across a non reference saphire 4870 which seems promising and right now i think its the cheapest one ive seen so far (in CAD). The reviews for the card itself are good, you can change the fan speed on it to make it quieter, which is pretty important to me.

So my question is if anyone here that cares about noise levels has any experience with this card before and if lowering the fan speeds reduces the noise level of the fan to acceptable noise levels (almost inaudible)

thanks

Denscafon · Post by **Denscafon** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 2:33 pm

this is the card i am referring to

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6814102801

wasn't allowed to post a link in the first post....

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 3:13 pm

I too am looking at this card, and would appreciate any and all of the astute observations and information that all the brilliant silencers on this site have!

Fred · Post by **Fred** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:05 am

I can't even find that card in their graphic card section. >_>

Denscafon · Post by **Denscafon** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 6:33 pm

u mean on the sapphire site?

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products ... =245&grp=3

pretty weird that they only show a pic of it with the reference version but don't talk about the difference with the coolers at all.....maybe they don't make the reference ones anymore?

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 4:37 am

Hello,

I am also trying to find a "quiet-with-stock-cooler" 4870. I'd prefer it to be no louder than my current card, a Palit 8800 GT Sonic.

I have found a Sapphire model quite similar to the one mentioned in this topic; here's a link. It's the "toxic" version with a "VaporX" cooler.

I like the fact that it has a big fan, heatpipes and an exhaust system that (mostly) sends the heated air out from the back of the case; but one review I read in a Turkish hardware site states "While better than a reference 4870, it's not as silent as we had hoped." This worries me a bit.

Is there anyone here with experience about the "Toxic" 4870's of Sapphire? I guess I could do without the factory overclock of the "Toxic" version if it means a more quiet cooler (though the cooler does seem to be more advanced in the Toxic version..).

Otherwise, I guess I'll have to just get a reference 4870 (with 1 GB RAM, preferably) and see if the noise is intolerable.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: I read two more reviews of the card where noise was being complained about.. and that's from hardware sites that are oriented towards performance and not quietness. I guess I'd better look elsewhere..

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:40 am

I have similar card my self. It isn't that saphire model but some other brand with two fans. The bigger fan (which probably is the same in saphire) was quite quiet when slowed down.

But I took that plastic thing where the fans are out and installed two noctuas there with cord. As I overclock my card. It doesn't run passive even at stock speeds. The GPU temp doesn't rise so high but it freezes over some time. Maybe the VRM's.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:00 am

Hello CyberDog,

I did come across your post while reading the posts in these forums about 4870's...

It's a nice solution; the Noctuas should definitely be more quiet than the stock fans used in the card (it should be Palit or Gainward, to the best of my knowledge.. The ones with "Dual BIOS"es.).

I don't think I could go that route, though - first, here in Turkey many distributors put their "warranty stickers" on top of the cooler's screws; so if I change the cooler or open it to change its fan the graphics card will go out of warranty. Second, I really don't want to do some modding with the graphics card cooler, something might go wrong - I'd rather mount an aftermarket heatsink. And the warranty would be void either way.
Lastly, I'd rather keep the video card's ability to change the fans' speed according to load and temperature. This means I should connect the fans to the video card, and sometimes they use proprietary connections.

Still, yours is a good solution to the problem.. I'm glad that it's running silent and cool for you. I guess I'll look a bit more for a card that runs at an acceptable noise level with its stock cooling. Otherwise I'll wait for the next batch at Q1 2009 (AFAIK), which should be built with 40 nm and therefore draw less power.

Thanks for the reply..

gbohn · Post by **gbohn** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:38 pm

Denscafon wrote: ...

I'm planning on making a new setup during boxing day sales and am planning on getting a 4870 (most likely 1gb version). Most of the stuff I'm buying has emphasis on being as silent as possible, without tons of modding and tons of cash.

I was originally going to put a Accelero S1 rev2 on a referene 4870 to make it fanless but from reading other threads here, it seems like there could be some problems with the VRM sinks not fitting properly.

I came across a non reference saphire 4870 which seems promising and right now i think its the cheapest one ive seen so far (in CAD). The reviews for the card itself are good, you can change the fan speed on it to make it quieter, which is pretty important to me.

So my question is if anyone here that cares about noise levels has any experience with this card before and if lowering the fan speeds reduces the noise level of the fan to acceptable noise levels (almost inaudible)

thanks

I'm currently in the process of setting up a new build with this very card.

I got an ASUS Rampage Formula/P182 case/Q9650/HR-01 + along with this HD4870. I have a 120MM Medium Scythe Slipsteam rear exhaust fan and a 120 MM Nexus inlet fan. (I also added an 80 x 15 MM "San Ace 80" to keep the North and South Bridges cooler).

I was also hoping to avoid having to replace the HD4870 heatsink, if it could be avoided.

I haven't gotten everything completelyl set up yet, but I have been able to run some tests using Prime95, rtidribl, and FurMark with the system on my workbench.

The good news is that at the 2D (Win XP) desktop, in an 65 degree F ambient environment, this seems pretty quiet. The video card fan idles at about 1100 RPM, but it runs pretty hot (at least as far as I can tell). I get temperatures reported of 'DISPIO 58 C/ Memio 75 C/ Shader 58C'.

As a torture test I've been running 4 instances of Prime95 at the same time as I run the Furmark "Stability Test" . This causes the fan to ramp up to about 2300 RPM, and it's very much more noticeable.

The video fan is then clearly the primary source of noise.

Subjectively, the quality of the noise isn't too bad. I don't notice any horrible high frequency whine, etc. I'd say it's probably not too much noisier in this state than some 'non quiet' systems I've used. But, as I said, I haven't finished setting it up yet to see how tolerable it is.

When it's pushed like this, I'm seeing the GPU reported temp's reported as about 78 C. But the other temps are reported as 'DispIO 78 C/ Memio 98 C/ Shader 83 C.

I'm new to an HD4870, but that seems pretty darn hot to me! This would make me reluctant to slow the fan down any further than it already is.

One other quirk I've noticed is that when you first boot the system, the fan seems to ramp up for a second or two during BIOS processing to what sounds like about 5500 RPM. (I'm guessing as a test).

Hope that helps you with your decision.

-Greg

Denscafon · Post by **Denscafon** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:41 pm

thank you for your info, oh and btw, nice rig

Just want to clarify some things though, what settings is ur fan at when conducting these tests.

reading some new egg reviews, someone said that at 40-45% will make the fan go around 2000 rpm which is right before it gets "loud". Since during your torture test it only went up to 2300 RPM im guesing you set a limit to the fan speed?

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:17 am

Driver/BIOS/CCC sets that limit for fan speed. At least what I have understood. You can dial the fan up from CCC if you like to overclock etc. Or dial it down on 2D applications for quiet operation.

About the warranty sticker. There is warranty sticker on my card also. It's over heatsink screw on backside of the card. Not over the fan screws. My card is palit's dual edition. And as I said earlyer the fan which probably is the same fan that saphire has. Is reasonably quiet at desktop usage and can be dialed down to 20% from CCC.

gbohn · Post by **gbohn** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:30 am

Denscafon wrote:thank you for your info, oh and btw, nice rig

Just want to clarify some things though, what settings is ur fan at when conducting these tests.

reading some new egg reviews, someone said that at 40-45% will make the fan go around 2000 rpm which is right before it gets "loud". Since during your torture test it only went up to 2300 RPM im guesing you set a limit to the fan speed?

This is using Catalyst 8.12 drivers with the default/built-in fan profile. With my systems conditions, it decided 1100 was 'right' at idle, and 2300 was right at heavy load.

I have just started playing around with CCC and 'ATI Tray Tools' to possibly alter the fan ramp profile, but I was thinking that the MEMIO temps were already frightening under heavy load...

So, I was thinking there wasn't any room for improvement under 3D.

But, for all I know 98 C for MEMIO isn't as bad as it sounds... I need to find out what's 'normal' on the 4870 (for comparison).

Tim Connor · Post by **Tim Connor** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:44 am

Denscafon wrote:
I was originally going to put a Accelero S1 rev2 on a referene 4870 to make it fanless but from reading other threads here, it seems like there could be some problems with the VRM sinks not fitting properly.

thanks

viewtopic.php?t=50678&highlight=4870

You can modify the stock cooler to work on the VRMs along with the Accelero S1. The bigger pain in the neck was modifying the BIOS so that I could use the automatic fan profiles. The later Catalyst versions will allow you to force a fan speed so if you aren't up for BIOS antics you can still have a nice quiet card. But since I did most of the legwork you should be able to only have to flash the BIOS once or twice.

Hope this helps. Regards, Tim

Denscafon · Post by **Denscafon** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 10:20 pm

wow thats pretty interesting. ya i heard about using the reference cooler's heatsinks instead of the ones given by accelero for the VRMs. for some reason though alot of these non reference coolers are actually cheaper than their reference counterparts, so just buying the reference card and then an accelero would cost me almost 80 CAD more

so...being cheap i might just stick with the sapphire one if it stay relatively quiet.

thanks though tim and gbohn for your responses, much appreciated.

Tim Connor · Post by **Tim Connor** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:59 am

Denscafon wrote:so...being cheap i might just stick with the sapphire one if it stay relatively quiet.

The reference cooler is OK at idle and while using Vista's Aero. The noise was just at the noise floor of the rest of my system. I thought I could pick it out, but it blended well and didn't have any unpleasant tone. However, it ramps up very quickly and is quite noticeable under ANY 3D load.

I had hoped to be able to live with it, but decided it was worth it to upgrade.

The rest of my system is fairly quiet for a gaming rig. Scythe Zipang on a Q6600 Quad Core, 300GB velociraptor, Seasonic M12 and an two other very quiet undervolted fans all in an Antec P182. It's not silent, but it is quieter than any commercial prebuilt system I've heard.

Regards, Tim

non reference saphire 4870

non reference saphire 4870

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Re: non reference saphire 4870